


Resident Enis: The Mages' Tower

by RedCrossX



Category: Random Encounters - Fandom, Resident Enis, YouTube (Various)
Genre: Adventure, Canon Continuation, Cinammon Roll Character, Could Be Canon, Cute Vampires, Friendship, Look at the lack of fandom, Magic, Monster Hunters, Monster of the Week, Monsters, Original Character(s), Post-Apocalypse, Sparkly Vegan Vampires, episodic, fan fic pioneer?, sparkly vampires - Freeform, why can I not find the fandoms for this thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-19 07:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5958406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedCrossX/pseuds/RedCrossX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Searching for some refuge, and possibly against their will; the unruly trio finds themselves in a Magic tower with two seemingly-friendly wizards. While the Magicians themselves don't seem set to hurt them in any way, Dodger and Mark aren't taking any chances with their sparkly friend around. Knowing him, they'll find themselves with something they couldn't possibly understand, and that thing would most likely be vicious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Haha, so I saw Random Encounter's Resident Enis Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB2ns7sT8ww) and being the poor obsessed fan boy that I am I immediately jumped on the fandom bandwagon and started watching this thing. I fell in love with their channel and they really deserve some press so please go give them a look if they stumble across this.
> 
> Also Enis is my child but that's all good.

“A massive stone tower?” Mark rubbed at his eyes as a machete dangled at his side.

  His adventuring partner Dodger pushed them in this direction after their little encounter in the Creepy Shack, but really anything but backwards was an option.

 “Yeah,” she grinned, “saw it poking out from behind the swamp when we decided to go around it.”

  “It’s _HUGE!”_  Enis’ eyes widened.

 As usual, Enis was all over the place. No matter how hard he tried, Mark could never get rid of that freakin’ kazoo, and it grated on his nerves at the best of times.

 “Who had the time to build a stone tower out here?” Mark wondered.

 The trio walked towards the mighty tower as the winds of the wastes howled over the dusty land. From ugly cabin to ugly swamp to… whatever this was, Mark was relieved that it was one of the sturdiest structures he’d seen in a long time.

 “Oh man,” Enis smiled widely with his protruding fangs, “Maybe there’s some cool treasure in here! Or a princess waiting for her prince to come save her…”

“Or an army of bandits,” Dodger sighed.

Mark nodded, “Most likely an an army of bandits.”

 “Well, we’re gonna have to make a decision pretty fast. We don’t got too much light left.” Dodger pressed towards the heavy gates of iron bars and pressed her hand against them.

 In a shocking flash, her hand pulled away, and the eye insignia that marked the bars flashed with a violet light before it fizzled away, and the gates cracked open with a loud screech.

 “Woah… that’s awesome…” Enis’ eyes sparkled.

 In a moment, his arms were looped through both Dodger’s and Mark’s as he pulled them through into the inner room.

 “C’mon! We gotta go see what’s goin’ on!”

 “Whoa-whoa whoa whoa whoa – Enis! Slow down!”

Mark shook Enis away as he turned back to address the group. The tower seemed as dank as every other place they’d visited. The smell of old moss and eroded rock accented the barren entrance like a blue sky to a painting of flowers.

 Mark prided himself as the leader of this group. Or, if not a leader, then at least he deserved some credit for keeping them alive. He’d killed his share of monsters, much to Dodger’s chagrin.

 Monster Gulch made you paranoid. Everything was a threat, and if it wasn’t dead, then you were.

 Of course, when you meet sparkly man-child monsters like the Yodelling Vegan Bloodsucker it tends to make you reconsider what’s going on.

 Mark still considered that he might’ve died and this was his penance for being an asshole in life.

 “What’s wrong, Mark?” Enis asked with a habitual tilt to his head.

 Dodger chuckled, “I thought you’d like being in a place as sturdy as this.”

 “The sturdiness isn’t my problem,” Mark responded, “It’s the creepy magicky stuff that’s going on.”

“Oh c’mon Mark, not all magic is evil.” Enis waved him away.

 “Well it’s evil or it sucks.” Mark glared, “I think Dave can attest to that.”

 “I still don’t know why that didn’t work…”  His book popped out from his satchel again as Enis started flipping pages.

 All of a sudden, a screech echoed through the centre chamber. As they glanced outside, they noticed some kind of beast-man being fried in the background as its claws scratched at the gate they passed through moments before.

 The moon hovered above like a bright silver coin as another sound added to the monster’s death-throes. A quiet rumbling shook under the stone as a second wall rose us and separated the inside from the outside once more.

 In the span of a few minutes as Mark lectured about the importance of avoiding dangerous magic traps, they found themselves blocked from their exit.

 “Well, I guess that the tower made a decision for us.” Dodger shrugged, “Now c’mon. Maybe this ugly thing has some cool stuff!”

 Dodger practically skipped towards the spiral staircase and started trekking upwards. Enis and Mark shared mixed looks before they started following their greedy friend.”

 “So, do you know any vampires that live in towers, Enis?”

 “No!” he chuckled,” Vampires like mansions a lil’ better. Maybe it has somethin’ to do with Dracula being so popular and acting so rich. I know some hang out in churches or other places…”

 “O-okay,” Mark yawned.

  The staircase went up and up and up… but they stopped at first at the first floor they came to. A warm fire bellowed in a thick fire place. Books lined the walls and two old, yet comfortable looking chairs sat within its warmth consuming the flames for their own internal furnace.

He grumbled under his breath, “…doesn’t mean there isn’t anything else here…”

 As if on cue, the fire of the furnace became aggressively blue as It roared brighter and larger than he’d ever scene. Dodger had to jump back behind the chairs as a silhouette emerged inside of the dark flames.

  _”SO YOU ARE THE GUESTS THAT HAVE ENTERED OUR TOWER!”_  A booming voice echoed through the chamber.

 Dodger stared blankly at the flames as Mark pulled out his machete. It was then that he noticed Enis standing way too close to the flames, his skin bedazzled in the blue light.

 “Enis!” Mark snapped, “don’t get too close!”

  A figure emerged from the fire. The flames clung to its body like streaming feathers, and eyes of violet flashed across the room. Then, in a blink; All the fire was gone as it left a figure in blue robes standing in front of the soft fire of the fireplace. The vampire and the pair of raiders stood back as the figure reached up and removed his hood.

 Crystal blue eyes met them on a young face.

 “Well, I’m glad our animosity gate worked,” the young figure sighed, “It kept out most of the…”

 As he scanned the room, his eyes fell on Enis. The vampire in question gave a quiet little wave to which the man just blinked.

“Lemme guess… Vegan vampire?”

“That’s me! I’m Enis! And those two over there are Dodger and Mark!”

 Before the wizard spun around a sharp metal blade had already found itself placed against his neck and he found his back pressed against the wall.

 “Another warlock?” he grimaced.

 “Okay, this time it’s _actually_ my turn.” Dodger stepped forward as she carried her baseball bat over her shoulder.

 Mark stumbled into the wall. The figure that was once there was now leaning against his bookshelf with a tattered volume in his hands and a chesire-cat grin from cheek-to-cheek.

 “You know, I don’t know if we would’ve tried making a monster safe haven if we knew that every raider out there was gonna kill us.”

 “Dude, a ‘monster safe haven?’” Dodger sighed.

 The trio leapt backwards as the figure appeared between all of them with a bright smile on his young face.

 Then another hand appeared from the void and smacked him upside the head.

 “Ow!” he groaned, “C’mon sis…”

 “Mason, please,” a second figure in similar robes faded into existence beside him. Her figure was tall, demanding, yet held a mischievous smirk not to dissimilar to the first man’s face.

 She turned to face their guests with a much gentler face as she cleared her throat, “I apologize for that. I’ve told my brother that he should be kinder in his welcoming of guests.”

 Mark still held his machete above his head, while Dodger and Enis soon moved to meet him at his side.

 “Hi!” Enis grinned.

 “Well hello there. Please, do not worry while you stay in this tower.” The woman explained.

 “Yeah, so you can rip us apart for some kind of magic experiments?” Mark growled. His stance emulated that of a mama bear protecting his cubs, while Dodger just kept looking around.

 The younger wizard leaned over to his sister, “What do they think we do here?”

 “Let me explain,” the woman announced, “I am Margaret, and this is my brother Mason, and the pair of us built this tower as a safe haven for those who brave this Gulch.”

 “So, magical wizards built a tower in the middle of nowhere and they _don’t_ have the intention of using us in torturous experiments.”

“Says the pair that’s travelling with a vampire.” The boy scoffed, “What made that happen?”

 Mark rolled his eyes, but Dodger responded with a small laugh, “Well, he tried to heal our friend… and failed. But he tried.”

 “Poor Dave,” Mark wiped at his blade with the end of his shirt.

 “I’m still not sure why that didn’t work. And I’ve read the book a whole bunch of times by now!” said Enis.

 Dodger and Mark made the executive decision a while ago to make sure that they could distract Enis at night time. They thought they would get over it the first night, but sadness still seemed to creep up behind him at a moment’s notice.

 It was a little different for Mark and Dodger. Their experiences had harsh impacts on their levels of empathy. Sadness… wasn’t really a thing any more. It was usually replaced with intense bloodlust or bubbling rage.

  One of these distractions was getting Enis to re-read his spell to see if he missed something. Mark was surprised, but pleased that it had worked as long as it had.

 “Here, do you mind if I see that?” Mason asked as he hovered close to Enis.

 The wizard in his blue robes shimmered silver around the edges. If Mark hadn’t pinned him to a wall earlier, h’d be convinced Mason was incorporeal, but perhaps it was just a glamour, or a way for the boy to show off.

 When they compared him to Margaret, her blue robes were of the same make with the same symbols stitched into the fabric, but her robes didn’t glow the same. The strangeness of her ensemble came from the glimmer violet gems that decorated her neck and her braid of brown hair.

 “Oh no, this isn’t right at all…” Mason shook his head.

 Enis spun around, “Whaddya mean?”

 “Lemme guess, the whole thing was made up nonsense that Enis thought would –“

 “- distract us from the boredom of the wilderness!” Dodger cut him off.

 Mostly because Enis was staring right at them with teary eyes and Dodger was not in the right mindset to deal with those emotions.

 “No, all the right steps are in here… they’re all messed up!”

 Jaws dropped. Dodger and Mark stared at the wizard, Enis’ eyes light up as he spun around, to face Mason, and Margaret in the background muffled her laughter behind her robed hand.

“What? How?” Enis asked

  Mason snapped his fingers and the book hovered out of his hand. It sneezed out its pages one by one until he was standing in the centre of a paper storm. Just as they were all torn away, the pages smashed into the binding one after another, and the book landed back in Enis’ hands as delicately as a bird.

 “I always thought that rhyming would make more sense…” Enis mumbled.

 Mason grinned, “You’d think that, right? No, magic is ridiculous. C’mon, maybe I’ll show some more magical nonsense!”

“That sounds so COOL!” Enis cheered.

 The pair were gone in a blink as Mason led him back down the stairs, probably deep into the dungeon beneath.

 That left Margaret with the two others in the room.

 “Look lady-“Mark began.

 Margaret raised her hands, “I promise you: We will not harm any of you while you stay here. I know that it is difficult to believe me. Maybe some food will change your mind.”

 “That sounds awesome.” Dodger knocked Mark in the ribs to stop him from talking. The pair shared an aggressive stare before the woman nodded and started making her way upstairs. Once out of ear shot, Dodger turned back to Mark.

 “Look, this is how we play it. We play along as long as things are safe.” Dodger explained.

“And if they aren’t?”

 “Then we club ‘em, take their stuff and get out of here as soon as possible.”

Mark grinned, “Now that’s a plan I can get behind.”

“Good. Now let’s get going. Don’t wanna keep our host waiting.”

 Dodger paused to wonder about Enis alone with the other magician,but he assumed they’d be fine. Enis may not act like it all the time, but he was a vampire.

 The two wizards seemed like nice people anyhow.

 The growling noises outside that seemed to get even louder than usual? That was a little more concerning.

 


	2. Chapter 2

  The light grew brighter as they moved towards the basement, contrary to what was expected from the grim, stone structure. Looking up a spiral staircase that twisted down the inside and it appeared as though the tower would reach for the heavens.

 With each step torches ignited on the walls with a ghoulish blue flame as Mason bounced down the stone stair. Enis figuratively floated after him as his eyes followed the trail of blue lights.

 “How long did it take to build this thing anyway?” Enis asked as they passed another floor.

 Mason shrugged, “I don’t know. We have this bad habit of getting really wrapped up in the work we’re doing…”

 “So you lost track of time building?”

 “Well… yeah. We switched off on jobs. One person held off monsters and the other one added more to this tower until we had what we’re looking at now. Oh look; we’re here!”

The staircase came to a halt. Enis’ first observation was the absence of the same windows that clambered up the entire wall. The second observation was that the light in the basement was warmer than almost anywhere else.

 “Here we are!” Mason announced, “Welcome to my bedroom-slash-lab. Feel free to take a look around.”

 Enis’ moved his fingers across the gravelly walls as he inhaled the ancient-ness of this mysterious room. With one hand against the wall and his eyes towards the centre of the room, Enis noticed an old, ragged bed next against a wall and packed bookshelf separated the sleeping nook from a wall of sparkling gadgetry and glowing phials. Beyond that wall was a simple table: white in color on four legs, but the glowing tablet atop the table begged for attention.

Mason pulled back his hood as he stepped towards the table. He took a green tattered book and dropped it beside the tablet. His vibrant eyes grew brighter in the magic of the tablet, and suddenly Enis’ presence faded in Mason’s focus.

It was only seconds later when his head snapped up and the light fizzled away with a quick pop.

“So… what kind of magic do you do anyway?” Enis asked with an innocent grin.

 Mason’s dimpled cheeks gave a calming response: “These days it’s healing and defense charms. There was actually some people that came through here the other day and we helped stock ‘em up before they were off.”

 “Stock ‘em up?”

“With food, mostly,” Mason responded, “I’m mostly an alchemist. So I –“

“Change one thing into another thing, right?” Enis cheered.

 Mason chuckled, “Yeah, that’s exactly right.”

 The steps were solid beneath their feet as Dodger and Mark followed Margaret up the stairs. Mark’s boots clunked off each step while the magician in question seemed to slide across the steps like they were made of ice.  Mark’s eyes kept glancing back to the floors they’d passed. The idea of leaving Enis alone left a sourness in his mouth before they finally came to another landing.

 “You shouldn’t worry about your vampire friend,” Margaret smiled as her feet met a soft brown carpet, “Mason shouldn’t have a problem keeping an eye on him.”

 “You’d be amazed what Enis can do even when someone’s watching him.” Mark sighed.

Dodger chuckled, “We’ve been travelling together, what, a week?”

 “Has it only been that long?” Mark slumped.

 Margaret spun around. Her hands lifted a tray from around the corner and she sat it down at a small wooden table. There were some sandwiches of various kinds, and a pot of tea sitting next to some mugs painted with flowing colours. In fact, after staring at it for a few seconds Dodger was sure that the colours were flowing.

“Tea? I promise nothing’s enchanted or anything. Here –“

 She poured herself a cup, picked up one of the sandwiches and took a bite from one of them before bringing the tea to her lips.

 “It’s a flower tea. Supposed to help with healing, I’m told though you’d probably have a better chance with a healing spell if you asked me.”

 Dodger cautiously took a seat at the table. She shared a look with Mark for a moment, and after another shrug, he followed suit.

 Could they be preparing to kill them? Maybe. Dodger still hadn’t dropped her baseball bat in case anything was to happen.

 “Thank you for your… hospitality.” Dodger coughed as she reached for a sandwich though she’d never seen Mark shove his face as fast as he did with this food.

 Margaret smiled, “Oh, no worries! That’s why the tower’s here. Monster Gulch can drive people to do dangerous things, so having some kind of shelter could save people a little.”

“It is the only building in sight,” Dodger blinked, “it was safer in here than it was outside.”

Margaret gave a quiet laugh as she sipped more of her tea. Her eyes swam with starlight as she cast a cursory look around her little room. While Mark was focused on consuming as much food as he could, Dodger noticed the table behind her. A blue tablet sat on top of a long, wooden desk, and what looked like a deck of cards was scattered across the surface.

 “Man, what I’d give to set up in a place like this,” Mark sighed with his hunger finally satiated, “But we’ve always gotta keep moving.”

Margaret clenched her teeth, and her smile became a grimace.

 “It is quite the disaster out there, isn’t it?”

“Monster Gulch ain’t no picnic. That much I can tell ya.” Dodger groaned.

 Mark grabbed for a mug, “But maybe we’ll find an end to it… So what do you do besides providing shelter?”

 “Hmm?” Margaret paused, “oh yes. Well, I tell people’s stories mostly. Or I help Mason as he experiments with whatever’s going on.”

 “Is this place prime for experiments or something?”

“More so it’s away from prying eyes. Magic users have a bad rap for many reasons. That includes taking advantage of people who don’t know any better. That’s why we left.”

 “And you willingly came here?” Mark scoffed, “You might have a bad rap, but I think it’s because you’re nuts.”

She laughed even harder. “That might be true…”

“That being said, what’s set up over there?”

 The trio stood up from their chairs as Mark pointed to the same tablet Dodger had been staring at moments before. Margaret snapped her fingers and the card flung off the table and flew towards here. All of them started spinning around her form like fluttering insects before they fell in a pile in her hands.

“Oh!” Dodger grinned, “are you a fortune teller?”

 “Actually, I’m a Backstory teller. I can reminisce people’s pasts in order to help others learn about their future.”

“A backstory teller? Seriously?” Mark blinked.

“Yup!”

He snorted, “Sorry… it just sounds like something a writer would make up to easily learn more about someone’s past.”

“Now that you mention it, it does sound kind of absurd,” Dodger added.

“Well, it’s got to be useful to someone!” Margaret sighed as she placed the deck on the table, “humor me, maybe?”

 “Why don’t you tell us about Enis?” Dodger suggested.

 Mark stared blankly at Dodger, “Actually, that’s a good point.”

“Don’t know much about your vampire friend?”

“Other than being annoying and vegan?” Mark stared.

“Also, he really isn’t that good at yodeling.” Dodger chuckled, “oh and hates water.”

“Well yea, all vampires hate water,” Margaret grinned, “Any monsterologist could’ve told you that. Come to think of it, what do you know about vampires in general?”

 “There’s a lot of things that can kill ‘em,” Dodger grinned.

“And most of them drink blood for sustenance,” Mark added.

“Do you know how a vampire is made?”

 The pair gathered around the magician as she tapped her cards against the tablet. Blue light shone through as the cards began to dance across its surface.

 “For a vampire to become what they are; they first need to accept the blood of a vampire…”

“What about… this rock?”

 Enis held up a stone that was left on the ground with a wide grin, and Mason responded with more laughter.

 “Sure! Toss it up!”

 He threw it into the air. Mason waved his hand towards the stone, and at a single moment, both glowed blue before the rock started to change shape.

 Suddenly, it was an apple sitting on Mason’s desk.

“That’s so cool!” Enis grinned as the pair moved over to the fruit. Enis reached over and took a bite out of it.

“Tastes good too!”

“Seriously?” He took the apple and took a bite himself.

He was hacking on the ground only moments later. His eyes watered.

 “It tastes like chalk!” He coughed.

“Tastes fine to me!”

He shook his head as he stared back to the panel behind them. Suddenly it ignited with an eerie blue light and his neck snapped towards the glow.

 “What’s that?” Enis asked suddenly. His hands were on Mason’s shoulders as blue light reflected from his eyes.

 Mason shrugged, “It looks like Maggie’s doing some kind of spell. Probably some more Backstory-telling or whatever.”

 Enis paused as Mason stepped away. His own hands touched the sides of the stone as Mason started to pause, and his head turns around to see the vampire looking down at the panel with growing concern.

“Enis?” Mason called. His jacket sparked with blue electricity. An air of nausea suddenly bubbled through his skin and a sulfur taste permeated across his tongue.  He then noticed Enis’ hand that knocked over a small vial of something, and a red smoke pulsed through the air.

“Oh dear.” He rushed forward.

 Enis was knocked out of the way with a bit of a yelp as Mason waved his hand across the red smog. The blue sparks flashed towards the smoke, binding around it and hauling it back towards the vial.

Then, with the other hand; he pressed the cork into the bottle.

 Yet some red smoke spun forward and splashed against the rocks on the floor.

“Hey, Enis!” Mason shouted.

For the first moment in a while, life came back to the vampire’s eyes.

“Huh?” He coughed, “What’s going on?”

 The stones in the ground began to rumble. A thick, deep red light burst through the cracks in the ground as they started to shift and churn within the red light.

 “Oh boy oh boy oh boy…” Mason stuttered, “O-okay. Enis, you need to get up to the top floor.”

“What?”

“Please, Enis?” Mason gulped down air, and he pressed Enis back towards the stairway.

 Enis only needed to catch the glowing aggressiveness in Mason’s eyes to know he needed to do something.

Blue light flashed from his eyes. The white and blue of his eyes were engulfed in the same blue lightning as he stepped towards the red smoke.

 “C’mon Mason. How many times has Margaret told you to clean up your stuff? Now some massive monsters’ starting to break the veil…”

 He clapped his hands. The silver lines of his jacket glowed blue like his eyes. Suddenly he was a thunder god as he stepped towards the red smoke.

 And a stone fell downwards as a large talon ripped through the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm gonna keep going with this no schedule nonsense and see where it gets me.
> 
> Here's chapter two. As usual, any feedback is greatly appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

          Blue lights spiralled around the room. The burst from the crystal sphere and danced around the room as Mark and Dodger watched. Margaret’s eyes flashed violet and her robes billowed as images started to dance around the walls.

 “So… your friend Enis the Vegan Vampire…” Margaret chuckled, “Well, the poor guy’s got a bit of a past.”

“Like, monster-level spooky past?” Mark asked, “Like locked-in-a-dark-basement-eating only-rats kinda past?”

 The women stared at him for a moment.

“What?”

“Okay, Mr. Grim, why don’t we let the magician talk.”

 Margaret cleared her throat, and the walls around started to spin into life. For a split second, they could see pictures of images flickering like a rapid-action slideshow. Then the colors came into focus. Suddenly, in vivid colours, an image of Enis’ likeness was plastered on the wall, though he looked… sad.

 “Vampires are interesting creatures.” Margaret explained, “When they get Changed from their human form, their personality is thrown into flux, usually becoming almost an opposite of who they were when they were human.”

 “That’s… odd,” Dodger wondered allowed. “So, our friendly Enis…”

“… Didn’t have that good a life before his un-death.”

 The image grew clearer, and instead of the cheerful, excitable monster they’d been used to, there was a quiet, sullen-looking figure that was walking down a sidewalk with a hood over his head.

 “Wait, _that’s_ Enis?” Dodger gaped.

Margaret only nodded as her eyes kept glowing. Her hands spun around the edges of her crystal ball as they all watched what appeared on the screen.

 “Unfortunately, with him being a vampire and all, the past is a little foggy, but it seems that he was struggling for a long time. His aura was clouded in darkness.”

 “What did he do?”

“It’s hard to say… I’m trying to read into ambition, but… I’m not finding anything.”

 As the image progressed, they suddenly noticed a man pull an arm around Enis’ shoulder as they walked down the road. He wore a leather jacket even as rain poured down, and the silver streak in his hair and the razor-sharp grin did nothing to encourage the viewers.

  _“So, Enis…” he snarled, “any luck with that combination of yours?”_

_“I told you I had to start from scratch,” he said timidly, “and as it stands I lack what I need to finish it off…”_

_The man’s neck cracked, “You know the consequences.”_

_“Well, you know what, you might just want to get it over with then!” Enis snapped, “Look, what you’ve asked me for is impossible with the resources I have. I’m sorry.”_

_“The punishment for disobeying the Clan is a one-way ticket to the gulch, you know that kid.” The man sighed as they rounded the corner._

_Enis looked as though he was trying to resist, but the man’s grip was firm on his shoulder._

_He pulled Enis around the corner…_

 “Guys! Something’s going on!” Enis smashed through the doorway.

 The moment he entered the room, the images melted from the walls. Like wet paint, the colors dripped away before they spun like a twister back into Margaret’s crystal eyes.

 “Enis, what’s going on?” Dodger asked suddenly, “Is the tower flooding or something.”

“No! It’s… It…”

“Something’s amiss in the basement.” Margaret cut him off.

Enis nodded, “Yeah. He was just showin’ me around, and I- I knocked something over, then Mason told me to come up here-“

 Mark grabbed his shoulders and shook him briskly, “Breathe, man! Look, something screwed up, now we gotta go fix it, so let’s go!”

 “I’ll go ahead, you three take the stairs.”

 Margaret snapped her fingers, and she vanished from the room, leaving Mark and Dodger to follow Enis down the stairs. Already Mark was pulling back his machete as Dodger grabbed the baseball bat as the trio started to descend into the confines of the tower.

 One floor below, a pained howl shook the foundations of the tower. They stopped from how hard the tower was shaking and shared a look.

 “Okay, maybe we shouldn’t get involved,” Mark coughed.

Dodger rolled her eyes, “Are you serious?”

“What good are we gonna do anyway?” Mark snapped back, “They probably let loose some kind of vicious demon from Hell and we’re here trying to go in with a couple of sharp sticks!”

“And a kazoo!” Enis cheered.

 The response was dagger-looks that quickly shut him up.

 “So what, we let our hosts deal with this thing by themselves.”

Mark nodded viciously.

 “Fine.” She grabbed the machete from his hand and shoved the baseball bat into Enis’ hand, who suddenly had the disposition of a dog who’d just been handed car keys.

 “We’ll just go deal with it ourselves.”

  The pair marched towards the steps.

“Wait!” Mark shouted.

 The pair turned around.

 He grasped for words. The sounds got trapped in his throat. Only when he grabbed back the machete did the words seem to come.

 “As much as I _hate_ to say it, I think our best chance is if we work together.”

 Dodger and Enis grinned at him, “Well I’m glad someone got the memo finally,” she snickered.

 They braced themselves. Mark grasped the machete with both hands, and Dodger did  the same in a pose opposite to them as Enis pulled out a blue book apparently from nowhere.

 “It’s called _Easy Spells for Magical Creatures,_ ” He explained, “Mason was showing it to me before… you know.”

 There were no more questions, only a call to action as they descended into the basement.

 Though thoughts of Enis’ past still weighed on the minds of the other two survivors.

Another ethereal claw smashed through the ground, sending stones in all directions as Mason wrapped it in strands of electricity. With a push, he shoved the hand back into the void below, only for three more to take its place.

 “Come on!” he shouted as sharp talons swung towards him. He ducked quickly, then tripped as the block below his feet tumbled out from underneath him. From every ethereal limb, there were eyes. Eyes everywhere staring at him with hungry desperation. He pulled himself away from the hole as a massive hand rose above him. Another eye stared from the centre of its palm.

 Then, with a shout, a wave of purple energy sliced it two, and the hand shivered away.

 “What happened!” Margaret shouted, winding another few hands together with violet magic before squeezing them until they dissipated.

 “The seal’s been broken for a while, I think!” Mason called back, “A vial of Demon essence got knocked over and the whole place started falling apart.”

“Okay, so all we have to do is fix the seal?”

 “We need a vital ingredient, though!” He shouted.

 Blue and violet eyes stared towards the void as a guttural roar called out from beyond their dimension. Mason muttered words under his breath as lines started glowing blue across the ground.

 “And what ingredient would that be!” Margaret responded as violet lines began to trace the blue.

 “Hellhound blood, and summoning them would not be great right now. With just a little of it, we could use it as a catalyst –“

 What appeared to be some kind of tentacle cut him off as it swung towards him. Mason lifted his hands to defend himself, and it almost worked before the tentacle became a sharp blade that cut into his shoulder blade.

 He screeched in pain. Blue magic exploded from his eyes and his body, forcing the thing back as he slumped to the ground, breathing heavily.

“MASON!” Margaret shouted as she too began to glow.”

“It… It’s all set…” he muttered, “we just need –“

“Help from a sparkly vampire, and friends!” Enis cheered as he jumped towards Mason and pulled him out of the way. Mark cut a hand that was crawling toward the pair as  Dodger dropped to her knees near the glowing line.

 “We heard most of it. How much hellhound blood do you need?”

“Just a little bit,” Mason muttered.

 Mark offered his machete to the weakened alchemist, “This cut through one a while ago as we tried to protect our friend.”

“The keyword in that sentence is _tried!”_ Dodger shouted.

 She smashed her bat into another limb as Margaret came closer. Her magic crushed another limb as the eyes grew angrier.

 “This’ll work,” Mason muttered, “Enis, hold me, okay? I might need to borrow some magic.”

“Whatever you say!” he cheered.

 Mason pulled the blade close. Mark pulled out a stake of some kind and was trying to jab at anything that came close.

 A bit of a barrier formed. Mark, Dodger, and Margaret were doing everything in their power to keep the demonic power from getting close to Mason.

 Then Mason’s chant began. In a language no one understood, he chanted loud and firm as his hands lay against the side of the machete. His eyes flickered to life again with electric blue light. Marks started to glow all the way up his arms, and the silver of his robe started to flicker with light. Small spots along the side of the blade flickered blue, the same as his eyes, as the creatures screeching grew even louder.

 The blue and purple circle surrounding the void merged, forming vibrant white light as the creature roared in pain. The white light emanated throughout the entire room, blinding nearly everyone.

 And then there was nothing. When the group opened their eyes, there was no evidence of the demonic monster.

 Only Mason leaning against the stone wall of his study, with Enis holding him up.

 “Whew…” Mason’s breath became ragged, “The lesson is: clean up your stuff…”

 Margaret came close, “Mason, your wound…”

 He stared over his shoulder. It still bled, staining his robes a sickly brown as he tried to lean his hand against it. The blue sparks grew weak as Margaret came closer. She pressed her hands against his arm as Enis started to bite his lower lip.

 “That’s pretty rough. You may wanna get that bandaged soon,” Mark muttered softly.”

 “Not… Enough…” Mason groaned.

He tilted his head towards Enis. The vampire looked ready to cry.

“The wound’s cure… is the exact same as that for a hell hound bite… just backwards.”

 Enis’ eyes widened as he pulled out his trusty book, “Seriously?”

 Mason couldn’t help but smile. “Better hurry, I can’t hold on forever.”

 Enis lifted the book up and stared at Mark and Dodger. Though their reluctance was clear, and their aggravated sighs declared this, they had no choice but to play along.

 Markus was wrapped like half a mummy in bandages, with layer upon layer covering his wound, and a soft blanket was pulled up over his bare arm and chest.

His chest rose and fell like a balloon attached to a helium pump.

 “Well, I guess it actually worked this time,” Dodger smiled as she and Mark were led to a couple of rooms on one of the free floors.”

 Mark shook his head, “Why am I always the one kissing guys?”

Dodger couldn’t help but chuckle.

 “Umm,” Enis poked his fingers together awkwardly.”

 Mark rolled his eyes, but soon turned to face the vampire, “What is it now, Enis?”

 “I… I just wanna make sure that Mason’s okay. I mean… this was all kinda my fault.”

“Nonsense,” Margaret came up behind him and wrapped on of her arms around his shoulder with a maternal hand.

 “This was not your fault, Enis,” She grinned, “It was going to happen sooner or later. You just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

 An awkward silence occupied the narrow hallway.

“I’m sure he’d love your company.”

“OKAY!” He shouted and was gone in less than a second, leaving Margaret with the human pair.

 When she looked to the pair, the shadows were clear under her eyes, and as she pulled away her hood, the usual braid was gone. Instead, there was a tangled mess of dark hair.

“I… I need to both apologize and thank you for saving my brother.” She started.

 Dodger shrugged, “You’re offering us safety tonight. To be fair, that thing was nothing compared to trying to survive a whole night outside.”

“There’s a reason why ‘Wilderness Expert’ is not on my list of people who survive Monster Gulch,” Mark added.

“Well, that _thing_ is also why this tower was built in this specific location.”

“Really?” Dodger questioned.

 Margaret gave a soft smile, “My brother and I, we have a theory as to how to rescue Monster Gulch for good, and that demon is at the centre of it.”

Mark gave a curt nod, “I’m not gonna ask any more questions. I’m monstered out for the night. I’ll see you all in the next day. Goodbye.”

  Mark turned to walk away.

 “One more thing!” Margaret called, “Before you retire for the evening: Be kind to Enis. I know he may be a little… much. But this is probably the most cared for he’s felt in the entirety of his existence. And it’s easy to see that he cares about you.”

 With that final statement, Margaret gave a soft bow and then walked away. She looked ready to keel over herself. The metal spheres of exhaustion dragged at her ankles as she made her way up the steps.

 After the night they had, everyone hit their beds and were out cold within seconds.

 It was the best sleep they ever had. Mark and Dodger woke up well rested and immediately started packing their sparse belongings away as they descended the stairs and saw Enis eating a series of apples as Mason just stared and shook his head.

 “A Vampire’s palate is _fascinating.”_ Mason chuckled.

 Dodger and Mark shared one glance, then with two snarky grins, they sat on both sides of their vampire companions. Mark grabbed for one of the apples as Margaret brought out a tray of rolls and other breakfast foods.

 “Please, his taste is the _least_ weird thing about him.” Mark snorted.

 Dodger added in, “We still don’t know where he hides all those kazoos.”

 “If you _really_ wanna know…”

“Let’s save that secret for another time.” Mark finished, spitting the stone-turned-apple out towards the corner of the room.

 Their breakfast was a merry, and refreshing endeavor after their ridiculous ventures the night before.

 But as it is for looters and thieves; they have their own answers to seek.

 “Oh! I almost forgot!”

  Enis pulled out his blue book, but Mason quickly waved his uninjured hand, “It’s yours. I don’t really need it.”

“Are you sure you’re all going to take off right now? Surely you could wait a while longer.”

 Dodger shook her head, “We gotta keep moving. You have your theories about how to end this place. But we’re just trying to find a way to get out.

“Well, we stocked you up with supplies,” Mason smiled, “and if you need more you can always come back.”

“Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. and Ms. Wizard of the tower!” Enis announced like a Shakespearian actor.

 “And we wish you the best of luck,” the magicians responded.


End file.
